44 minutes ago, alanlj44 said:

I think we'll all agree that the maddog is an absolutely fantastic aircraft FM and system wise, there's no denying they did a great job on this side of the fence. It's just a bit sad for the texture work when you have produced such an amazing sim, you'd want everything to be perfect from top to bottom. 

It is nothing to be surprised of when you have a closer look at the textures and how they were UV mapped (Lots of the VC parts, including very big parts, are all crammed into 2 4096x4096 textures. An obvious recipe for disaster for next-gen graphics, which only made sense for optimization purpose more than a decade ago, back when 4GB of Vram and 16-32 of RAM were considered bests of luxury).

In an effort to try and lessen the problem I'm currently working on a mod (it's finished in fact, just testing it) to higher up the resolution with 8K and even 2 16K textures where there's too much of the cockpit into 4K. Textures are the originals but I've tried to enhance them as much as I could without trying to repaint them from scratch which would be quite a big work, especially without access to the 3d model...

It's nowhere near perfect, works best on windshield pillards and some parts, less on others... I see no performance problems or more stutterings on my side with 32GB of ram, Ryzen 5 5600x, RTX 2070 super with 8GB Vram. 

Be sure to zoom in the previews to 100% to really see the difference:

 

This is absolutely brilliant!

9 hours ago, tup61 said:

I get what you are saying but imho devs should also be made clear they can't get away with subpar graphics for MSFS addons. Leonardo is asking a too high price for what if offers (obviously imho) and they shouldn't be applauded and praised for bringing P3D graphics into MSFS. Making this addon succeed by supporting it like you do might also give devs the idea they can sell simple P3D ports for big bucks and get away with it. MSFS raised the bar and devs should follow.

What confuses me a bit is this idea that P3d's airplane graphics were bad. I never thought they were, especially after PBR dropped. It was the rest of the world that looked horrible, but many of the airplanes (the player ones, not the AI-piloted ones) looked pretty good. The textures of this version of the Maddog don't bother me at all.

 

I for one am not a big "Pretty" fan. I'll take very acceptable graphics and great fidelity any day over pretty and faulty..

Edited May 2, 20224 yr by Adrian123

1 minute ago, Adrian123 said:

I for one am not a big "Pretty" fan. I'll take very acceptable graphics and great fidelity and day over pretty and faulty..

Why can't we have both for this price range, it's in the range of PMDG and most likely Fenix

5 hours ago, jcomm said:

Hey Enrique !  Tell me how you like this Maddog ?  Is it good ? Great ? Not quite like so but with potential to get better ?

I bought the first version for fs9 many moons ago 🙂  

An pold DC-9 30, KLM, was the first aircraft I entered IRL, for a short visit at the parking slot around 1973 🙂

Oi José! tudo bem? Take my view as very biased for two reasons: 1) I think Leonardo, contrary to PMDG, has usually under-promised and over-delivered during each of their product's lifecycle. I've been a customer since the LAGO days and have also purchased both 32 and 64 bit version, including the update to P3Dv5 and their 83/88 variants. 2) I think their rendition of the MD-80 is fantastic and systems / flight dynamics wise they have achieved miracles within the constraints of both the ESP and now the MSFS platform.

As you've read in this thread, there is room for improvement... the soundset being the most criticized aspect. But this has been historically so... they have focused on different areas. For example, you won't have the archaic LNAV implementation plaguing the "legacy" PMDG product line (and that I'm sure will continue to haunt their 737 in MSFS for some time after release). Flying LNAV/VNAV in the MD is a joy. 

Now, I would agree that this definitely feels like a port of P3D v5 version in some areas, however, some of us who have the v5 version and paid full for the MSFS version are enjoying the best of both worlds: an already great MD-80 rendition coupled with MSFS wonderful visuals.

So, to me, it is indeed GREAT to finally have a professional/quality add-on in the MSFS world.

The Leonardo Maddog (in P3D and MSFS), Aerowinx PSX, and HotStart's Challenger 650 are my top three high-fidelity simulations, with the Airfoilabs Cessna C172 NG, the Toliss A346, and the FSLabs buses in second place.

I have been in the jumpseat of the MD-83 and the DC-9 a few times in my life, and the Leonardo Maddog lets me relive the experience just as I remember it. I have friends who flew the DC-9 and the MD-82/83/87/88 that still enjoy Leonardo's rendition of this fine aircraft.

 

 

 

Edited May 2, 20224 yr by evaamo

Do you think there is a posibility about the MD80 being available at MSFS Market Place at some moment  ?

6 hours ago, WestAir said:

Absolutely. LSH should have offered an upgrade discount for MSFS.

In your case, I wouldn't recommend upgrading if you still use P3D. MSFS offers a lot, but not $80 worth of changes. Especially without GSX, ASN, RC4, FS2CREW and FSCaptain.

flying around in smooth full visual glory of mfs vs. stuttering, autogen popping world?

1 mfs maddog = 3 x carenados.  suspect many wouldn't blink an eye at carenados at $30 a pop, lol. 

Can someone confirm if the Maddog's FMS can be updated with Navigraph?

2 minutes ago, Avwriter said:

Can someone confirm if the Maddog's FMS can be updated with Navigraph?

Yes

On 5/1/2022 at 12:34 PM, Fiorentoni said:

That's exactly how it worked for me. Admin mode used for the load manager? I did change units in the load manager (little aircraft to the left, yes? where you can also change other stuff like "efb available?") prior to starting the sim, so not sure if that makes a difference.

If any else is having issues getting the kgs to lbs in the aircraft and EFB or changing in aircraft settings via the load manager, here is how to get it to work.

Open the load manager, goto "Airline tab" (aircraft icon), make sure you select the correct aircraft tail number you are using.

Now in MSFS, choose that  same livery you are going to use. Go to "customization" tab, either type the same tail number or leave it blank. Load your aircraft into flight sim.

Now you can goto the load manager and change your any of the setting that you want and hit the sync button on top right. It changed everything for me except avatar.  The only thing I still can't do is change the avatar. For me there was some tail number that carried over from a C172 I had flown.

Does anyone know how to disable cabin announcements?

8 hours ago, evaamo said:

Oi José! tudo bem? Take my view as very biased for two reasons: 1) I think Leonardo, contrary to PMDG, has usually under-promised and over-delivered during each of their product's lifecycle. I've been a customer since the LAGO days and have also purchased both 32 and 64 bit version, including the update to P3Dv5 and their 83/88 variants. 2) I think their rendition of the MD-80 is fantastic and systems / flight dynamics wise they have achieved miracles within the constraints of both the ESP and now the MSFS platform.

As you've read in this thread, there is room for improvement... the soundset being the most criticized aspect. But this has been historically so... they have focused on different areas. For example, you won't have the archaic LNAV implementation plaguing the "legacy" PMDG product line (and that I'm sure will continue to haunt their 737 in MSFS for some time after release). Flying LNAV/VNAV in the MD is a joy. 

Now, I would agree that this definitely feels like a port of P3D v5 version in some areas, however, some of us who have the v5 version and paid full for the MSFS version are enjoying the best of both worlds: an already great MD-80 rendition coupled with MSFS wonderful visuals.

So, to me, it is indeed GREAT to finally have a professional/quality add-on in the MSFS world.

The Leonardo Maddog (in P3D and MSFS), Aerowinx PSX, and HotStart's Challenger 650 are my top three high-fidelity simulations, with the Airfoilabs Cessna C172 NG, the Toliss A346, and the FSLabs buses in second place.

I have been in the jumpseat of the MD-83 and the DC-9 a few times in my life, and the Leonardo Maddog lets me relive the experience just as I remember it. I have friends who flew the DC-9 and the MD-82/83/87/88 that still enjoy Leonardo's rendition of this fine aircraft.

 

 

 

Thank you so much Enrique for your objective and very informative / clear review made me a potential Maddog customer

Just like you I had the LAGO version, and by that time the only "comparable" MD-80 was that in Airline Simulator 2, which I kept playing for years untul FSX was released.

For me details like those of sounds and textures, exterior views, and the like, occupy less than 10 % of my evaluation of a sim product. I could easily go with a 2D cockpit - actually would preffer to have that option in MFS aircraft - and rather look for detailled systems implementation, believable flight dynamics and good support from the developer.

Looks like a great airliner for MFS !

Edited May 3, 20224 yr by jcomm

14 minutes ago, jcomm said:

For me details like thos of sounds and textures, exterior views, and the like, occupy less than 10 % of my evaluation of a sim product. I could easily go with a 2D cockpit - actually would preffer to have that option in MFS aircraft - and rather look for detailled systems implementation, believable flight dynamics and good support from the developer.

Looks like a great airliner for MFS !

The consensus in this thread, and also other threads in forums (ie. the official MSFS forum), seems to be that the systems implementation for this Maddog is top notch and there aren't that many bugs.  It appears that most people, if they are able to properly bind their peripherals to this Maddog properly, are enjoying very smooth flights (people that aren't finding smooth flights are those that have problems binding their peripherals to the Maddog).

The biggest complaint appears to be the textures. If you are more interested in the systems, this Maddog seems to have it all, except for the weather radar.

It's a very smooth flying plane.

A couple texture quality improvements, ATC functionality fix, a quality sound pack for it and you have one great product.

24 minutes ago, abrams_tank said:

The consensus in this thread, and also other threads in forums (ie. the official MSFS forum), seems to be that the systems implementation for this Maddog is top notch and there aren't that many bugs.  It appears that most people, if they are able to properly bind their peripherals to this Maddog properly, are enjoying very smooth flights (people that aren't finding smooth flights are those that have problems binding their peripherals to the Maddog).

The biggest complaint appears to be the textures. If you are more interested in the systems, this Maddog seems to have it all, except for the weather radar.

Thx @abrams_tank.

Do you know if the WR is a consequence of the SDK not being available yet, something that will be "fixed" and implemented in the future as ASOBO adds the necessary tools ?